Never Met a Girl Like You
by SnowWhite7210
Summary: He knew she was trouble from the second he saw that hearse of hers. Who drives a hearse in an apocalypse anyway? DarylxOC. Just an idea I've been tossing around for awhile, wanted to see how it goes. Starts with first season.
1. Chapter 1

Some people were meant to live in this world, to survive. Most were not. I guess I was one of the lucky ones, if luck is what you'd call it. I would say the world went to shit, but it was a shitty place, even before the dead came back to eat the living. I knew that better than most people.

I haven't seen a single, living person since all this insanity went down. Been on my own for two months now. I guess I really can't complain, I mean, I have always wondered what it would be like to live in a post-apocalyptic world, completely alone. No annoying people to deal with. I never realized how much I would miss the sound of someone else's voice, or the sound of cars honking, or even dogs barking. There was nothing now, except absolute silence. And the moans of the undead. Or The Infected, as I called them. What else is there to call them?- reanimated corpses just doesn't sound right. Neither does zombies.

I was brought out of my reverie by something I was sure I would never see again. A person, a real, living, breathing _person_. The first one I've seen in two months. I really was beginning to think I was the only one left. I was so shocked by the boy's sudden appearance I didn't immediately see the four Infected trailing after him, hungry for their next meal. I threw my hearse into drive, driving towards the running boy as fast as I could. I smacked into the slowest Infected that was giving him chase, running it right over. I couldn't stop the sadistic laugh that bubbled up. I hate those undead fuckers.

I pulled up beside the boy, my passenger side window already down. "Hurry up! Get the fuck in before they catch up!" I snapped at him, stopping just long for him to climb in with the duffle bag he was carrying. I sped off just as one the Infected began grabbing at the back of my hearse.

"Wow, thanks! Thought I was done for a minute there. I'm Glenn." The young man said. He had a friendly tone. Good, I wouldn't the first living person I've seen in forever to be a douche.

"Nico. Nicolette Harper, most people just call me Nico. Or at least they did before, well, y'know.." I indicated with my hand the barren wasteland that was formerly known as Atlanta. "Where ya headed, kid?"

"We have a camp, at an old rock quarry just outside of Atlanta."

"We? You mean there's more of you?" I asked incredulously. More survivors!

"Yeah, we have a whole group. There's about twenty of us." Glenn said, giving me a strange look. One I couldn't decipher with my eyes fixed on the road ahead of us. "Are you alone?"

"Yup. Have been since this whole shitstorm started." I glanced at Glenn out of the corner of my eye. He was watching me, carefully, like he couldn't believe I had survived this long on my own. I couldn't blame him, I had a hard time believing it myself. Now that I got a better look at him, I could see that he was some flavor of Asian, around my age. Kind of cute, too. "Never thought I'd be so happy to see another living person."

"Well, I think you'll like it at our camp. It's safe there."

Safe. I held back the laugh that threatened to break loose. No place was safe anoymore, at least not for long. "Safe just means temporarily protected." I said with a bit more bite that I meant to. Oops. Glenn fell silent, only speaking to indicate the direction of where I should go to get to this 'safe place'.

"Who's that?" Glenn pointed to the photo I had taped to my dash. I swallowed hard, tightening my grip on my steering wheel, but said nothing. So he tried a different tactic. "Where'd you get this hearse?" He asked. He was obviously trying to engage me in a conversation.

Normally I hated small talk, but I've been starved of human contact for so long.. "Ehh, had a job at a funeral home when I was 19. Got a discount." I patted the steering wheel affectionately. "It's my baby. I've pretty much been living out of it since the world ended, never staying in one place too long."

"Where are you from?"

I held back a sigh, reminding myself how lonely I was not even an hour ago. Ugh, small talk. "DC, but I had family in Atlanta. I was trying to find them." I said stiffly. That was the reason I was near that hellhole in the first place. Family. "I have no idea where they could be, or if they're even alive anymore."

"I'm sorry." Glenn spoke softly.

I shrugged. "Whatever, not much I can do about it now."

Up ahead, I could see cars parked in an orderly fashion, and what appeared to be a man standing on an RV, watching me approach through a pair of binoculars. "You're gonna like it here. Everybody's really friendly." Glenn tried to reassure me. I rolled my eyes slightly, pulling up beside a beat-up truck. Glenn climbed out quickly, running for the group that was gathered, waiting for his return. I continued to sit in my seat, watching all of them interacting. Glenn was right, there was a lot of people here. I didn't think that many people survived.

"Glenn! Glad to see you made it back okay." Dale laughed, placing his hand on Glenn's shoulder.

"I wouldn't have made it back it weren't for Nico." Glenn said ruefully, indicating the parked hearse behind them. "She saved me back there. Came out of nowhere and saved me"

"Is it just her?" Shane asked, eyeing me still sitting in my hearse.

"Yeah.. Hey Nico, come say hello!" Glenn yelled over to me, waving his hand at me furiously. I groaned and forced myself to open the door to my hearse. _Baby steps, it's all about baby steps. I never liked people before, why was I stupid enough to think that would change just because the world ended?_ I berated myself as I slowly walked towards Glenn and the two men standing beside him. I could see their stares, practically feel the judgment rolling off the younger man in waves. Even at the end of the world I was still being judged by my appearance. The older man looked friendly enough. "Guys, this is Nico. She saved my butt."

"Ehh, couldn't let a butt that cute be eaten by The Infected." I grinned at him. Glenn's face turned red, which made me laugh. "Hi, I'm Nicolette Harper, but just call mer Nico."

"Dale Horvath, it's very nice to meet you." The older man, who I now knew as Dale, greeted me warmly, extending his hand to me. He reminded me of a grandfather, one of the nice ones that always let you do stuff your parents wouldn't.

"Shane Walsh." Shane also shook my hand. Something about him was.. off. It didn't sit right with me, but I shook it off and chalked it up to being nervous. Which was a lie- I never get nervous. About anything. "Why don't you come meet the rest of our group? You can tell us about how you saved Glenn's ass."

I chuckled, following the three of them to be introduced to the rest of their group. I scanned the faces staring at me. I could almost hear their thoughts. _Who dresses like that during the apocalypse? Who's that strange girl in those strange clothes? _I got the shock of my life when my eyes landed on two blondes I thought I'd never see again. "Andrea! Amy!" I cried, running as fast as my legs would carry me to my best friend and her younger sister. I laughed, laughed so hard I started crying as I enveloped the two sisters in my arms. "Oh gods, I thought I'd never see you again!"

Andrea laughed, hugging me hard. "Nico! I knew if anyone could get out of this mess unharmed it'd be you." She pulled back, smiling until she looked around me. "Where's-"

"It doesn't matter." I cut her off. She didn't need to know. At least not yet.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered as she hugged me again.

Shane chuckled. "Well, I guess you already know Andrea and Amy. That's Morales and his family over there, Ed, Carol, and their daughter Sophia, Jim, Jacqui, Lori and her son Carl." He gave the quickest introduction before going to talk to Lori. I shrugged off the vibes he gave me and turned my attention back to my friend. Andrea took my arm gently, leading me over the RV Dale was keeping watch from and sitting me on its steps.

"How did you find us?" Amy asked me.

"I was heading into Atlanta to see if I could find my mum. Turned out to be a bust, she wasn't there. I was sitting on the outskirts of the city, trying to figure out where to go next, when I saw your boy Glenn trying to outrun some of The Infected. I figured he was too cute to be eaten, and you know the rest." I explained.

"You've been alone this whole time?"

"Nah, I have Frankie with me. He's sleeping in the back of my hearse right now."

"A cat doesn't count. Nico, what happened?" Andrea fixed her blue-eyed stare directly on me.

"Please, Andrea, not now." I couldn't bear it. I haven't had a chance to talk about what happened, wouldn't even let myself think about it. I might just lose it if I did. Whatever I was going to say next was abruptly cut off by the appearance of two men I hadn't seen yet. One was older, with a short haircut. I guessed ex-military. The younger one.. Oh man, was he a looker. Dirty, scruffy, totally sexy. "Wow! Who is _that_?" My eyes widened as I watched them make their way to a couple of tents that were set a distance from the others. Obviously they weren't very into the whole 'group' thing, although I couldn't really blame them. The younger one set down the crossbow he was carrying, his lips moving as he said something to the older man he was with. Brothers, maybe? Lovers? You never know..

"Those are the Dixons. Merle and Daryl." I could hear the distaste in Andrea's voice when she spoke their names.

"The cute one?" I never took my eyes off them.

"Daryl." Andrea clarified for me. "Don't get your hopes up, he's not a social person."

"Don't have to be social to have sex." I shrugged, flashing my friend a wicked grin. "You know me, Andy, never did know when to leave well enough alone. I think I might go say hello." I stood up, brushing off the back of my black pants after sitting on the dirty steps of the RV. I could feel everyone's eyes on me once again as I made my way over to where the Dixons were situated. Most likely to make a fool of myself. I had a bad habit of doing that.


	2. Chapter 2

How crazy was Sunday's episode? I was all like "OMG the Governor's a crazy fuck! poor Daryl!"

I apologize for the last chapter. Really, I do. It was total crap and my writing's never that bad. What happened is I was visiting one of my friends and I got started on the first chapter, got two paragraphs done before my mum called and said one of my ferrets just died. (RIP Gizmo ;-;) So I was pretty distracted when I tried to finish the chapter. I'll go and redo it at some point (I procrastinate way too much). This story started out like most of mine- a series of drabbles that I end stringing together into a story. Not sure how often I'll update, I've never been very consistent . But the story will get better, I promise. Oh, and on a side note, Nico has radical honesty, she never lies and always says what's on her mind. Even to the point of ignoring social conventions. And when I reread through the first chapter, I realized that I totally forgot about T-Dog. Sorry, T!

Rest in peace, Gizmo Gee Burton- you are missed dearly! Oh, and any notes that are from me in the context of the story will be in [] If you have any suggestions for me to imrpove my story, they will be welcomed! On to the story!

I made my way slowly to the other side of the camp, intent on introducing myself to the Dixon brothers. Daryl, at least. _I wonder what his voice sounds like?_

"Hey, Nico?" Shane called for my attention.

_You ass! Interrupting me-_ "Yeah, what's up?" I changed direction, walking up to the man who was trying to flag me down. I noticed he was now wearing a black cap with the word 'POLICE' emblazoned on the front of it. So the iffy guy was a cop..

"Andrea says you're good at finding edible plants." He started. I glanced at my friend. The look on her face told me everything- she was trying to keep me away from the Dixons as long as she could. That was Andrea, always looking out for me. I could handle myself, but that didn't mean I knew how to stay out of trouble. She often joked about trouble being my middle name. "We could always use more food, and I'm sure the group would enjoy something different."

I waved my hand, already knowing where this was going. "It's not a problem, let me see what I can find."

Shane sent me a grateful smile. "Thanks."

"Whatever, I know Andrea's just trying to keep me out of trouble." I shrugged.

"She's just trying to look out for you. How do you know her, anyway?" Shane asked me curiously. "You look closer to Amy's age."

"I am. I'm 24. Andrea was a civil rights lawyer, we worked together on a case once." I explained cautiously. I didn't need to go giving everyone every detail of my life.

"You were a laywer?" He so didn't believe me.

I laughed. "No, I worked at The Lightman Group, LLC. They specialized in lie-detecting and deception, studying microexpressions and body language. I was in DC for a few months working on a few cases with the FBI. One of those cases brought me into Atlanta and that's how I met Andrea." The look on my face dared Shane to lie to me. "I can tell if someone's lying just by looking at them. And I'm almost always right." [I love the show Lie to Me, go check it out on Netflix. Tim Roth as Cal Lightman is awesome. I wanna work at the Ekman Group one day, I think all that microexpression stuff is fascinating. Wish I was a human lie detector]

"When you go, take T-Dog with you. I'd rather not have you wandering around out there alone." Shane practically ordered me before stalking off to talk to the large African-American male in question.

I scoffed and walked back to my hearse and opened the back of it. Frankie, my black and white kitten, jumped out and started purring at my feet. He hasn't had a chance to stretch his legs for quite a while. I grabbed a basket from the back of my hearse, one that had several plastic containers in it that I used when I went foraging for food. I figured I could start down by the lake, see what plants grew around the water, then make my way from there.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Lori's boy watching me. Or rather, watching my cat. Carl? Yeah, his name was Carl. I grinned, motioning with my hand for him to come over. He approached me shyly, keeping his eyes on Frankie. I crouched down to his level, giving him an affectionate smile. "Hey kiddo! It's Carl, right? I'm Nico. I see you looking at my kitten, he's cute, huh? Do you want to hold him?" I set down the basket I was holding and offered Frankie to Carl.

Carl looked positively delighted as he held my kitten. "What's his name?"

"FrankenKitty McSocks, but you can just call him Frankie." I said, showing Carl his skull-shaped tag.

"That's a weird name." Carl told me. He scrunched up his face in an expression of childish confusion.

"Oh, gee, thanks. I only spent two weeks trying to come up with a name for him." I kidded and ruffled Carl's hair. "Hey kid, I have to go with T-Dog and find some food for us to eat. Do you mind watching him for me while I'm gone?"

"Can I?" Carl asked. I loved the look of amazement on his face. _ This kid is adorable._

"Of course you can. Now why don't you take him and go play with the other kids?" I smiled at Carl.

He turned and started walking away to go show his mother my kitten, when he paused and turned bak to me. "I like your hair." Carl said quietly, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. I just laughed as he ran back to Lori. Kid's way too cute for his own good. He'll be a heartbreaker one day. _If he lives that long.._ I couldn't stop the thought before it crossed my mind. I picked up my basket and headed over towards T-Dog. The man was huge. At least if some crazy shit went down I'd have him on my side.

"Hey, T-Dog. Shane said to take you with me?" I nodded towards the basket in my hand.

"Sure thing. Can't have a little girl like you out in the woods alone."

I could feel my eyebrow twitching. All these men just thought I was some bubble-headed bimbo that couldn't take care of myself. _I'll show them. I don't need someone to look after me. _I understood that I was small and looked defenseless, especially standing next to T-Dog, but that didn't mean that I _was_ defenseless. I had a Sig P226 tucked securely into the back of my black leather belt, and a black KA-BAR kukri machete in a holster strapped to my thigh. The knife alone was lethal enough. Another KA-BAR LDK tucked into my boot. [LDK is last ditch knife. Nifty little fucker] "Shane thinks I'm weak and defenseless, right? That I need a big motherfucker like you to watch me. And you are a _big_ motherfucker." I peered up at him. He was at least a foot and a half taller than me.

T-Dog looked at me like he didn't know what to say. Most people don't, at least around me. The whole 'radical honesty' kind of threw people off. A lot of people used to think I was rude. _I may be rude but at least __**I'm**__ still alive._ Andrea and Amy were two of the only people that didn't judge me for the words that came out of my mouth. I shrugged off my negative thoughts and headed down the path to the water. I didn't bother to see if T-Dog was following me, I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me. My eyes wandered over to the Dixon section of the camp before it was out of view. I couldn't see Daryl anywhere, and Merle had long since disappeared. He was a junkie, I could tell. I wasn't sure if Daryl was or not. He didn't look like the type, but hey, you never know.

We ambled along in a comfortable silence. T-Dog didn't seem to want to engage in small talk, and that was just fine with me. I never cared much for small talk- the average person lies three times in ten minutes of conversation. So not cool.

"So what did you do before all this?" T-Dog spoke up, breaking the silence. So much for no small talk.

"That's the big question of the day, huh? I wasn't anything special- I worked with some awesome people. Our company often worked with groups like the FBI, CIA, DoD, and local law enforcement agencies. We specialized in detecting lies."

"What happened to the people you worked with?"

"I have no idea. My guess is they got eaten. Although my boss could be a real ass, maybe he tasted so bad The Infected wouldn't eat him. I really don't know." I gave T-Dog a blank look. He looked like he was holding back a laugh because he didn't want to offend me.

"The Infected? You mean Walkers?"

"Is that what you call them? Walkers. Hm.. I like that better than The Infected." Coming up to the lake, I could see that there was very little vegetation that grew around the water itself. But I could see a small stream leading deeper into the trees. _Maybe if I follow that I'll find something._ "Let's follow that stream. I bet it will lead us to a bunch of edible plants." I pointed to the stream, already starting to walk beside it. T-Dog quickened his pace to catch up with me. I began picking pinecones up off the forest floor and pulling them apart. I could see my companion giving me an odd look. "Most pinecones contain edible nuts."

"How do you know what's edible?"

"Before the world went nutters, I was a health food junkie. And you can't get any healthier than wild food that grows without pesticides or added chemicals." After I said that we fell into a comfortable silence once again. I like T-Dog, he was very laid-back. It wasn't long before we came upon a small clearing filled with lush vegetation. _I bet there's plenty of food in here.'_ I settled myself beside a patch of Queen Anne's Lace, pulled on a pair of gardening gloves and started digging.

"Weeds are edible?" T-Dog asked me in disbelief.

I nodded my head. "A lot of them are. Queen Anne's Lace is actually a wild carrot. The root is edible and tastes like carrots. But you have to be incredibly careful so you don't confuse it with hemlock, which is very poisonous." I kept uprooting the plants until I had a good amount of the carrot-like roots placed in my basket. I spent about another hour or so foraging through the clearing until I couldn't fit anything else in the basket I was carrying. I had a good collection of Queen Anne's Lace, dandelion leaves, pinecone nuts, some wild onions (they grow everywhere), and I had previously collected a lot of pollen from cattails. The pollen from cattails is highly nutritious and can be substituted for flour.

T-Dog held his hand out to me and helped me stand. I brushed the dirt off the knees of my black jeans and thanked him. "This'll be a nice change, won't it? Some fresh vegetables?" I asked casually.

He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a rustling sound deeper in the trees.

Well, there's chapter two! Still kinda sucky, but better. It's been so long since I wrote any stories it's taking me a little while to get my game back. Bear with me, it will get better. Reviews are food and fuel, flames burn the Walkers. Let me know what you think- I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism.


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